Interactive Software Federation of Europe

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ISFE statement on the recent dialogue between the World Health Organization and the video games sector

11 January 2019

“ISFE welcomes the first meeting ever between the WHO and the video games sector that took place in December 2018, to discuss the positive impact that video games have on players and on society worldwide. In Europe, some 250 million people play video games for entertainment, health and educational purposes, and 2.6 billion globally”.

The video games sector remains concerned about the proposed inclusion of a so-called “gaming disorder” in the list of International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as now proposed by the WHO management. We are concerned by the lack of substantive evidence to justify this proposed classification, and by the lack of transparency in the classification process.

Simon Little, Managing Director ISFE said “Classifying "gaming disorder" under the mental health and addiction category of the ICD-11 list may well lead to abuse of diagnosis and misdiagnosis as such inclusion is not based on a high level of evidence, as would be required to formalise any other disorder”.

As an industry we take our responsibility to our players seriously and to minors in particular. We are committed to collaborating with stakeholders, researchers, policymakers, and parents to ensure best-in-class ratings, parental controls, and other tools help video game players and parents understand and manage healthy video gameplay”

ISFE (Interactive Software Federation of Europe) represents national trade associations in 18 European territories and 14 of the leading video game companies. More than 50% of the European population play video games and the sector is worth €20 Bn in Europe. ISFE’s purpose is to serve Europe’s video games ecosystem and to promote its value, creative and innovation potential towards policy makers, and to promote a responsible gameplay.